President Robert Mugabe has suspended Zimbabwe's attorney-general while he is investigated on charges of abusing his office, state radio reported today.
Sobusa Gula-Ndebele was last month briefly detained by police over allegations he promised to help a fugitive banker who had fled the country. Gula-Ndebele denies the accusations.
State radio said Mugabe had set up a three-member team to investigate his conduct. The tribunal will recommend whether Gula-Ndebele should remain in office.
The tribunal is separate to the police investigation. He is charged with corrupt conduct, which attracts a heavy fine and maximum 15 years in jail, if convicted. A trial date has yet to be set.
Gula-Ndebele could not be reached for comment today.
Police say that in September Gula-Ndebele met James Mushore, the former director of banking group NMBZ Holdings and promised him he would not be arrested if he returned to Zimbabwe.
Mushore fled to Britain in 2004 at the height of a Zimbabwean banking crisis that saw several finance houses shut down by the country's central bank. He was arrested in October upon his return to Zimbabwe.
Local papers have been quick to report that the accusations against Gula-Ndebele were politically motivated.
Newspapers said he had clashed with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa over control of the attorney-general's department, which oversees the functions of the country's prosecutors.
The weekly Financial Gazette reported on Thursday that Gula-Ndebele had sought a court order to stop what he deemed harassment by police.
Mugabe's government has previously vowed to tackle graft, especially by top officials, but analysts say an anti-corruption commission appointed in 2006 was ineffective and barely functional.